The other day I went to B&Q and they don’t accept contactless. I was disproportionately annoyed: What a faff to get out the card, insert, PIN, wait, back into wallet. I had forgotten how complicated life was back in the stone age…

As such I’m a big fan of contactless. It’s just that I don’t see the point of this card. For me my physical card has use only as a backup nowadays: if either my phone batter has died, or the shop doesn’t take contactless. This card isn’t really gonna help with the 2nd, and I fear it won’t help with the 1st if its yet another device that needs charging…

I understood that a lot of contactless transactions weren’t authorised ‘live’

That’s no longer the case (at least in the UK): In the early days of contactless the device would indeed skip authorisation (which is why contactless used to be almost instant). Nowadays the authorisation is usually performed “live” for contactless transactions (you may notice that you usually need to wait a few seconds after tapping the card against the reader while the device communicates with the issuer.)

The reason why PIN+contactless is uncommon in the UK is because in the UK the PIN is usually verified locally with the card: The PIN is stored on the chip, and the PIN is verified before the terminal even communicates with the network. In a contactless transaction, however, you can’t do that, as the chip is unavailable.

In some countries, the PIN isn’t verified locally against the chip, but online against the bank. I believe most German cards for example don’t have the PIN stored on the card at all (at least that’s what the banks used to tell us). In that model you can do PIN+contactless again, as you have to communicate with the bank anyway for PIN verification.

Contactless and Google pay are two different things. If you’re using contactless and need a fingerprint for a higher value you may as well insert the card your already holding.
I’ve never had Google pay not work because of a limit? Sometimes the cashier’s have said £30 max and I’ve just ignored them. (Politely)

Contactless and Google pay are two different things. If you’re using contactless and need a fingerprint for a higher value you may as well insert the card your already holding.
I’ve never had Google pay not work because of a limit? Sometimes the cashier’s have said £30 max and I’ve just ignored them. (Politely)

I’ve had Google Pay turned down at Tesco for a £35 transaction. Didn’t bother arguing with the cashier as it’s either company policy or I’d have to wait a while for someone more senior to turn up.

On the other hand, I regularly use Google Pay for larger shops at Aldi

It’s well known that Tesco doesn’t accept any form of contactless (card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Fitbit Pay, nor any other Pay) for over £30. I’ve heard that they have plans to change that, though (if they haven’t already?).

In many stores the cashiers are just misinformed and think that the various Something Pay variants only work up to £30. But in some stores (and Tesco is the best known of them) the terminal just won’t accept it - so need to argue as the cashier won’t be able to do anything about it…

It’s well known that Tesco doesn’t accept any form of contactless (card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Fitbit Pay, nor any other Pay) for over £30. I’ve heard that they have plans to change that, though (if they haven’t already?).

They have always accepted over £30 but only if you use the Tesco pay+ App the same as Barclays with no Android pay. They have an in-house developed system.